Brockton water commissioner is proposed as officials consider $88 million Aquaria deal

Wednesday

Aug 20, 2014 at 6:00 AM

Some officials have questioned Mayor Bill Carpenter's selection over qualifications.

BROCKTON – A relatively obscure city appointment is once again at the center of Brockton politics.

City councilors are questioning Mayor Bill Carpenter’s choice to fill the last empty seat on the Water Commission, an agency that will decide whether the city buys the Aquaria desalination plant for $88 million.

The brewing conflict is reminiscent of a fight earlier this year between Carpenter and the City Council.

In February, City Council President Robert Sullivan appointed to the commission Kate Archard, a Carpenter detractor and organizer with the anti-power plant group Stop the Power.

That prompted Carpenter to sue Sullivan and the council, arguing that state law gave the mayor power to appoint all five commission members.

Sullivan pointed instead to a city ordinance providing three appointments to the mayor and two to the city council president.

After a few weeks, Carpenter dropped the suit, saying that he was extending “an olive branch to the council.”

For a few months the commission faded back into relative obscurity – until now.

Last week, Carpenter proposed that the city buy the Aquaria desalination plant in Dighton for $88 million.

Under terms negotiated by Carpenter and Aquaria, the commission must approve the deal, along with the City Council and state lawmakers. The deal is aimed at saving the city tens of millions of dollars by ditching a 20-year water contract it has with the company.

Carpenter has also recently proposed an appointment to fill the commission’s last empty seat. That selection is coming up for a council vote just weeks before commission members are expected to consider the Aquaria proposal.

On Monday night, the Finance Committee, consisting of all 11 city councilors, voted to favorably recommend James Bragg to the City Council, which meets next Monday.

Bragg, a Vietnam veteran, retired a few years ago after working 40 years in construction. He served for years on the War Memorial Board of Trustees, was a carpenter’s union leader and outspoken supporter of the proposed Brockton power plant.

Despite his activism, Bragg said Tuesday that lately he has “cut back on my political stuff” and that he will carefully consider the costs and benefits of the Aquaria proposal.

According to the ordinance, two members are supposed to be residents appointed by the council president. The other three must be residents with “extensive experience” in the fields of finance, business and engineering, appointed by the mayor.

Bragg is not an engineer and neither are the other two mayor appointments currently serving, prompting Ward 6 Councilor Michelle DuBois to send correspondence about the ordinance requirement to her colleagues after Monday’s meeting.

“The questions that Councilor DuBois brought up need to be answered,” Sullivan said. “We can always send something back to the Finance Committee.”

DuBois did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Ossie Jordan, commission chairman, said that it is “too picky in this day and age” to say an appointee meets one aspect of the requirement and not another, especially considering how difficult it is to find qualified volunteers.

Both Jordan and commission member Bernie Hassan said that Dan Murphy, a transportation engineer, should fill the experience requirement in the ordinance even though he was appointed by Sullivan rather than Carpenter.